


Forgotten

by fluffbird



Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: (although it'll be a while before that lol), Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Blood Loss, Crying, Dark, Eye Trauma, Fainting, Gen, Horror, Loss of Limbs, Monsters, Torture, Trauma, if you have like any triggers probably don't read this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-07
Updated: 2017-07-19
Packaged: 2018-10-29 06:28:22
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 18
Words: 16,817
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10848348
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fluffbird/pseuds/fluffbird
Summary: People say that only two things are certain in life: taxes, and death.If you're a real person, that applies. But if you are a figment of someone's imagination? A Splintered section of a full person's mind? Well, neither of those are true. But something else is.No matter what, you will eventually be forgotten."And what's so bad about that?" I hear you ask. Well, what exactly do you think happens to someone when they're completely forgotten? When they're so faded that no one remembers their existence - not even the worms and maggots that feed on the corpses of those who once had lived in a physical form? Do you think those people just fade away, cease to exist?I wouldn't blame you for thinking so. I did too. And then I found out the truth...





	1. The Beginning.

_People say that only two things are certain in life: taxes, and death._

_If you're a real person, that applies. But if you are a figment of someone's imagination? A Splintered section of a full person's mind? Well, neither of those are true. But something else is._

_No matter what, you will eventually be forgotten._

_"And what's so bad about that?" I hear you ask. Well, what exactly do you think happens to someone when they're completely forgotten? When they're so faded that no one remembers their existence - not even the worms and maggots that feed on the corpses of those who once had lived in a physical form? Do you think those people just fade away, cease to exist?_

_I wouldn't blame you for thinking so. I did too. And then I found out the truth..._

 

* * *

 

 

You would think fading is a slow process. One that takes weeks, months, maybe even _years_ to happen. It isn't.

One day, everything in Virgil's life was completely normal. He helped Thomas record a video, pointed out that the character he was getting attached to in that TV-show was _probably_ going to die, reminded him that _Thomas, you better take that medicine you were prescribed or people will be disappointed in you,_ and at the end of the day he went to bed just like he usually would.

The next day everything was very, _very_ wrong.

When he woke up he was surrounded by darkness. Not the darkness in a room where all the lights are off, or when the sun has gone down, or when you're hiding in a cupboard in the dead of night. No, this darkness was _intense_ , darker than anything he'd ever seen. It was _cold_ too, cold and solid and pushing at him. It was in his nose, in his mouth, pushing itself through his skin. He wanted to scream, but his throat was filled with the darkness. He wanted to cry, but the darkness was in his tear ducts too. It was _everywhere_.

There was no sound, no light, no comfort. Only darkness. Only silence. Only cold.

Time seemed to stop - or was it going faster? He didn't know. He kept trying to scream, to cry, to fight back, until he couldn't anymore. Everything lost meaning. He didn't know if he'd been in there for weeks, for months, for years, for millennia? Or maybe it was all in an instant, maybe it was just a second, he didn't know.

What he did know was that it _hurt_. Everything was cold, a harsh and burning cold, and he couldn't see and he couldn't feel and he couldn't _breathe_ but he wasn't dying either. He couldn't even fall unconscious - the darkness kept him awake, aware, unable to escape the excruciating pain.

And then it stopped.

 

* * *

 

Virgil fell to the ground. He didn't notice the pain of the impact, or the _thud_ of his weight colliding with the surface beneath him, or the _snap_ of every bone in his left arm shattering as it was crushed underneath him. None of it held a candle to the ice-cold hell he'd just been through.

With a slight groan,he forced his body to roll over so he was laying on his back. His breathing was shallow and his throat felt like sandpaper, but he blinked his eyes open, staring up.

Above him was a sky that seemed to be simultaneously pitch black and glowing. There were no stars, no clouds, no moon, but somehow he _knew_ it was a sky and not a ceiling of some kind.

Using his left arm he tried to push himself up into a sitting position. That's when he noticed how injured it was.

Pain shot through the arm, making him _scream_. He glanced to his side and saw blood staining his hoodie.

 _Fuck_ , he thought, _Is it- it's broken, isn't it._

He tried to push himself up again, using his good arm this time, and managed to sit up straight. Clutching his injured arm tightly to his chest he looked around, trying to make sense of where he was and what was going on.

The world around him was monochrome. No matter how hard he looked, he couldn't find even the slightest hint of color - aside from the red of his own blood and the pale beige of his skin. He was sat in a clearing surrounded by tall pine trees, casting dark shadows underneath their branches. For a second, he thought he saw something move - a flickering shadow, a pair of glowing eyes, the rustling of a few branches. The air was still, yet he could hear whispering sounds, as though someone was speaking in the shadows.

"W-who's there?" he called out, "Show yourself!"

He slowly stood up, taking care not to injure his arm further. Every joint of his body was still aching - be it from the darkness or the fall, he did not know.

At first, there was no answer, just the flickering of shadows and whispers on the nonexistent wind. And then he appeared.

A small child stepped out of the shadows. Virgil immediately recognized him - he was the spitting image of Thomas at seven years old. Thomas at the age when Anxiety had first come into existence.

Like him, the child still had color - pale skin and rosy cheeks, a colorful shirt, _blonde_ hair. At first, Virgil thought the child was some form of an apparition, a memory, something sent to torture him, remind him how horrible he was. And then the memories came flooding back.

" _Imaj_ ," he whispered, looking in awe at the child, "You're Imaj, right? I- Imagination."

The child nodded and smiled up at him.

"Mhm! It's nice to see you again, Anni-ann!"


	2. The Cottage

_Once upon a time, there was a boy named Thomas._

_Like most other children - and adults for that matter - he was born with a single soul. But something about his soul was different - it had too much energy. So much energy that with time, parts of it started Splintering off, forming separate souls alongside his own. Soon enough, his soul was not one, but five, four unique Splinters residing in his mind._

_They didn't have names, at first. Their mind was only three years old, and none of them knew words big enough to describe them. Despite this, they were all very distinct. One was happy and kind and protective of his family. Another dreamed big and wanted to create the most wonderful pieces of art, in order to achieve glory. The third was a bit slower than the others and didn't speak much, but behind his silent facade was an enourmous well of knowledge and intelligence._

~~_The fourth was brightness, light, joy, and potential. He was a spirit of all things that make childhood what it is. He was the one who saw the good in everyone and everything, the one who saw animals in the clouds, the one who saw fairies dancing in the mist._ ~~

_The boy with the Splintered mind grew up, and found more words. Suddenly, the Splinters had names. Morality. Prince. Logic. ~~Imagination.~~_

_And then something happened._

_Suddenly, people were mean to Thomas. Suddenly, people weren’t nice to him. Suddenly, he wasn’t supposed to do this and that. Suddenly, he was supposed to suppress his i ~~magination~~. Suddenly, he was afraid. _

_A new Splinter appeared._

_Anxiety was dark, cold, negative. Anxiety was fear. And Anxiety was afraid. His fear spread through the Mindscape, and while he tried to contain it, while he tried not to hurt anyone, he failed. He couldn't control it, he couldn't control who he was._

_Not long after, ~~Imagination~~ faded. He left behind nothing but a large hole in the back of the Mindscape - not even memories were left behind, he was forgotten. The characteristics he'd been in charge of were absorbed by the others. ~~For all everyone knew, Imagination had never existed.~~_

_Over the years more Splinters appeared, only to fade away soon after. Some lasted a bit longer - ' ~~Missy'~~ and ' ~~Pranks'~~ both lasted a few years each - but they, too, faded. They, too, were forgotten. They, too, were reduced to nothing. They, too, could seemingly just as well have never existed._

_But there was still a hole. A large hole, in the back of the Mindscape, ~~a place where something should be but wasn't.~~ And as time passed, that hole only kept growing..._

 

* * *

 

 

"H-how? How are you here?" said Virgil, "You- you faded. You died. You were forgotten!"

"Mhm," said the child, "But don't worry, Anni-ann! I'm fine now! Although, we _really_ need to get going, they'll be here soon!"

Virgil felt his blood run cold.

"'They'?" he asked, "What do you mean, 'they'?"

"Why, the monsters!" giggled Imaj, walking over to Virgil and grabbing the hem of his hoodie. The child was still smiling, an eerie and somehow _wrong_ smile that only barely reached his eyes. "Come on, Anni-ann! We need to go! Now!"

The child started pulling at his clothing. In his weakened state Virgil had no choice but to follow. Imaj led him into the forest, walking on an invisible path between the trees and their roots. Soon enough he arrived at his destination: a small cottage in the middle of the woods.

 

* * *

 

One day, long ago, the cottage might have looked nice and homely. Now, though, it was falling apart. The windows were boarded up and there was glass all over the ground, as though someone had smashed them from the inside before replacing them with solid wood. The roof was tiled, but at least a third of the tiles were missing. Moss and vines grew all over the building. The only part of the building that seemed remotely intact was the heavily reinforced door, which stuck out like a sore thumb on the otherwise run-down house. Much like the rest of this world, the entire building was completely monochrome.

"Wait here," said Imaj and walked up to the door. He knocked, _tap tap-tap ta-ta-tap tap_ , a pelicular rythm which Virgil guessed was a password of some sort.

Soon enough the door opened a crack and Virgil saw a glimpse of another face inside the house.

"Missy!" exclaimed Imaj upon seeing the figure inside the house, "Get Pranks! You won't _believe_ who I found today!"

"You found someone?" said the figure - Missy? - and opened the door slightly more, peeking out. They, too, were a Splinter, although they appeared a lot older than Imaj - 17, perhaps?

Virgil made eye contact with the Splinter. He didn't feel any rush of memories like he had with Imaj, but they did feel vaguely familiar - and he somehow _knew_ that Missy was a _they_ , not a he. Missy, however, evidently recognized him, eyes widening to the size of a minor planet.

"Anxiety?" they asked, "Is that- is that you?"

"The one and only," he replied, not really sure what to do.

Missy rushed out of the house and toward him, seemingly going for a hug, but stopped when they saw his arm.

"Oh goodness, what happened to you?" they asked before shaking their head. "No, never mind. You can tell me later. Come on, let's get you inside."

 

* * *

 

 

The inside of the house was just as monochrome as the rest of the world, but unlike the outside world, it was brightly lit. Very brightly lit. Lamps, candles, and other light sources absolutely filled the place. He was standing in what appeared to be a hallway, with doors leading to different rooms, and a staircase along the back wall.

"Pranks!" yelled Missy, "We need you down here, _right this instant_."

A rushing of footsteps could be heard from the floor above, and suddenly another Splinter was rushing down the stairs. He, too, was younger than Virgil, but he did appear to be a few years older than Missy.

"Missy?! What's wro-" he began, then froze as he turned and saw Virgil. "Wh- no, that's not possible. This has to be a trick, he's one of them, get him out _now._ "

"Pranks, no!" said Missy, "Look! He has color, and he bleeds red! The Creatures can't fake that!"

Imaj nodded, stepping in between Virgil and Pranks.

"He's not one of them, Anks! I promise! I saw him fall!" shouted the child, although his voice sounded far too cheerful for the context.

Pranks stood silent for a moment, seemingly considering Imaj and Missy's words. Then, he sighed and shook his head.

"Fine- I- I'll believe you. For now," he said, walking back up the stairs. "Anxiety - if that really is you - come with me. Someone needs to do something about that arm of yours before you bleed out. You're staining the carpet."

 

* * *

 

Pranks and Missy led him into a side room. Imaj tried to follow but Pranks gave him a stern look. The child understood and stayed in the living room.

There was a bed in the room. It was torn and stained and the covers looked like they hadn't been washed in years, but to Virgil's weary eyes it looked like the most comfortable thing in the world. No prompting was needed for him to walk right over and flop down on it, wincing slightly as a spike of pain tore through his arm at the impact.

"Anxiety, wait, you can't lie down just yet!" said Missy, rushing over and helping him sit back up again, "We just need to get your hoodie off so we can take a look at your arm, then you can rest, I promise."

He groaned but complied, letting Missy and Pranks pull the hoodie off first from his good arm and then carefully from the injured one. The cloth stuck to his wounds and pulling it off sent another ripple of pain through them, and he bit his lip to suppress a whine. Beside him Missy and Pranks gasped in shock - apparently his arm was worse than he thought. He briefly considered turning his head to look but decided against it. Right now he just wanted to _rest_.

"Can I lay down yet?" he asked.

"Y-yeah," replied Missy with a kind but shaky voice, "W-we'll fix you up. D-don't worry."

Eager to lie down and finally get some rest, Virgil quickly nodded. Missy and Pranks helped him back down. The moment his head his the pillow, the blood loss and pain finally got to him. He fell unconscious.


	3. The (H)armless

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm posting two chapters at once to make up for this one being so short... enjoy!! :D

The first thing Virgil noticed when he regained consciousness was that his left shoulder kinda hurt.

The second thing he noticed was that he couldn't feel any pain in his left arm anymore.

The third thing he noticed was that he couldn't feel  _ anything _ in his left arm anymore.

His eyes burst open and he quickly sat up, glancing to his left. When he'd fallen asleep in Pranks and Missy's care he'd expected to wake up with a cast or something on his arm, but not this. A bandage went around his chest and across his shoulder – or, what was left of it – and after that, there was  _ nothing _ . His arm was  _ gone _ .

Silently he stared, frozen in shock. It was  _ gone _ , there was  _ nothing there _ ,  _ HIS ARM WAS GONE _ .

He screamed.

Through the haze of his panic he didn’t even notice the door slamming open or the other figures rushing into the room. He didn’t notice Missy coming up next to him and trying to talk him down, or Pranks looking on with guilt and fear in his eyes, or Imaj climbing up on the bed next to him.

He did notice when Imaj wrapped his thin arms around his torso, clinging to him for dear life.

“Please don’t cry, Anni-ann!” said the child, “It’s gonna be okay! I promise!”

Imaj’s voice snapped him out of his shock. With his ~~right~~   _ remaining _ arm he returned the hug, burying his face in the child’s hair.

“We’re sorry, we really are,” came Missy’s voice from his right, “We tried as hard as we could, but your arm was beyond repair. You would have bled out if we hadn’t-”

“Yeah, I get it,” said Virgil and looked up at Missy. He tried to sound as neutral as he could, but his voice betrayed him, making him sound aggressive instead. The younger Splinter flinched, and Virgil winced in regret. “Sorry, that sounded harsher than I wanted it to.”

Letting go of Imaj, he swung his legs over the side of the bed and shakily stood up. He walked over to Missy.

“I- I’m not going to lie. I’m  _ not _ okay,” he said, “But I’ll live. I suppose I have you to thank for that.”

He put his hand on Missy’s shoulder, and in a move that surprised him just as much as them he pulled the other Splinter into a hug. After a yelp of surprise and a second or two of awkward flailing Missy returned the hug. Virgil turned his head, looking over at Pranks.

“I can’t exactly pull you over too,” he said, “So I’m gonna have to ask you to come over instead. You too, Imaj.”

Pranks looked surprised, but both he and Imaj soon came over, all of them hugging each other. They weren’t okay, none of them were, but they had each other. They were going to get through this. Even though they weren’t really sure what ‘this’ was.


	4. The Second Fall

The hole in the back of the Mindscape had always been there, and it had always been growing. Logan knew that. But still, this development was somewhat concerning.

A couple days ago a  _ very _ large chunk of the Mindscape had fallen into it - he could not be 100% sure, but it seemed as though about a quarter of Thomas’s mind had just… disappeared. What’s worse, since the incident, all three Splinters had experienced much heightened levels of anxiety - Patton, being the most emotional, had been the one who was most affected, but both Roman and himself had also felt it.

He did recall that something like this had happened once before, when Thomas was about seven years old. That incident was when the Splinters first noticed the hole - one day, a quarter of the current Mindscape had suddenly been replaced with a gaping void. To his frustration, in both incidents neither he nor the others could remember what had been there before, although Logan was fairly certain the first incident had taken place shortly after the appearance of-

Wait. The appearance of who? No one had appeared back then. Roman had gotten a bit more imaginative, though, maybe that’s what he was thinking of. Or was that  _ after _ the incident? He wasn’t sure.

Either way, there was not much to worry about. Last time this had happened, the Mindscape had regrown within a few months. He was sure it would do the same this time.

Still, he couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong, odd,  _ missing _ . It wasn’t logical, so he tried to brush it aside and focus on his books. Everything was fine. He was sure of it.

And then Roman burst into the room.

“Logan, Logan! It’s happening again!” yelled the royal, “Patton’s section of the Mindscape is crumbling and I can’t find him anywhere!”

Logan immediately put his book aside. That’s right… This had happened before. Someone had disappeared last time, too. He wasn’t sure who, though… Either way, that wasn’t relevant right now. No, right now, the focus needed to be on finding Patton.

“Where do you think he might have gone?” he asked, standing up. “We need to find him.  _ Now _ .”

“I’ve looked everywhere!” said Roman, “Well, almost everywhere. I couldn’t get into his room, the door was locked and wouldn’t budge.”

“He must be in there. Come on, we need to get him out of there somehow,” said Logan, rushing out of the commons to run toward Patton’s room. 

He could see it crumbling before he got there. He could see the walls falling apart, and Patton standing frozen in the opposite corner of the room, trapped as the floor started falling away from the middle.

“Patton!” he called out, slowing to a stop as close to the crumbling room as he could get, “Patton, hang in there, I’ll- I’ll think of something!”

Patton looked up, and their gazes locked. 

“Logan!” he yelled, backing further into the corner. “No, get back, I- I don’t want you getting hurt!”

“Patton, I am not leaving!” said Logan, “You- you have to, I don’t know- Jump! It’s your only chance, please, I’ll catch you!”

Patton gave a shaky nod.

“I- I’ll try,” he said, as the hole in the floor crept closer. He took a deep breath, then ran as far as he could and  _ jumped _ .

Logan reached out, trying to grasp Patton’s hand. He felt the tips of the other’s fingers brush his and leaned forward, but it wasn't enough. Patton fell, and there was nothing Logan could do.

“NO!” he screamed, and as Patton disappeared into the void a strong desperation filled him. He needed to go after the room, he needed to get to him, he needed to reach him, he needed to  _ save _ him- wait.

Who did he need to save?

He didn’t need to save anyone. The only people in this Mindscape were him and Roman, and Roman was in the commons or possibly running to catch up with him.

He shrunk back, curling his body into as small a space as he could, not noticing how Roman caught up to him and knelt beside him. Rushing through his mind was  _ feelings _ , emotions, stronger than he’d ever felt before. Sure, he’d always had emotions, but these were  _ intense. _ The strongest of them all was a pure, persevering  _ despair. _ He was grieving, and he couldn’t even remember why.


	5. Resistance is Futile

Patton was drowning. That had to be what was happening, there was nothing else that this could be.

It was cold, cold,  _ so cold _ . It was cold, and it was dark, and it  _ hurt _ . The cold was  _ everywhere _ , seeping in through his skin and his mouth and filling his lungs and he couldn’t  _ breathe  _ and  _ it hurt so much please make it stop- _

But it didn’t stop, it just kept going, the cold pushing deeper, pain coursing through every cell in his body. He wanted to scream, but the cold was in his mouth, in his lungs,  _ everywhere _ .  _ Please make it stop, _ he screamed in his mind,  _ Please, please, I’ll do anything just mAKE IT STOP! _

And then it did.

Before he knew it he was out of the darkness, standing in the middle of a road. Tall pines surrounded him on both sides, but their needles were grey instead of green, and the sky above him was completely black - and yet, it seemed to be glowing. The only color visible was his skin and the clothes on his body.

_ Standing still in the middle of the road is probably not a good idea,  _ he thought. Yet, he couldn’t make himself walk over to the edge - the forest around him was dark, eerie, and it felt as though he’d be attacked or taken away the instant he stepped off the road. Instead, he decided to start walking along the road, hoping it would lead him somewhere safer.

He was, of course, wrong.

“Hello?” he called out, “Roman? Logan? Anyone?”

There was no response. 

He kept walking.

As he walked the road led him out of the forest and into what seemed like a generic suburban neighbourhood. Except, much like the trees in the forest, everything was… grey. Monochrome. Seemingly lifeless. There was not a soul around, not even a breeze, everything was perfectly still.

He kept walking.

Out of the corner of his eye, a shadow seemed to move. He spun around to face it, but there was nothing there. Nothing moving, at least. On one of the lawns lay a football abandoned, on another a kiddy pool was still filled with water. A watering can lay beside a large bush, as though it had been dropped and abandoned in an instant.

He kept walking.

Behind him, a dog barked.

He froze up, not sure if he wanted to spin around and face the dog that was following him or keep walking - something deep in his gut told him to  _ run _ , but he was too curious, too inquisitive. Plus, dogs are nice, right?

Slowly, he turned around. He was faced with- well… He was faced with a monster.

It looked a bit like a dog, but it was covered in a dark, slimy substance. It’s eyes were round, glowing, and completely white. From its back sprung dark tendrils, floating through the air as though they weighed nothing. It was smiling, and waving it’s tail - or was that one of the tendrils?

It barked at him.

“Oh! Uh, hi, buddy…” said Patton, trying to keep his voice from shaking, “You- you’re a good boy, aren’t you?”

The dog barked again. The tendrils started hovering further in the air, more menacingly.  _ Now would be a good time to run _ , he thought, spinning around and sprinting as fast as he could away from the dog. Behind him, he could hear the dog start running too, chasing him, and he knew he wouldn’t be able to outrun it. He made a sharp turn and ran up to one of the houses - the door stood open, maybe he could hide in there. He  _ just _ made it inside, closing the door behind him, locking it, shoving every piece of furniture he could see in front of it.

He let out a sigh of relief, thinking he was finally safe.

A wind started blowing, inside the house. It was coming from the door, and Patton could see specks of dark dust blow in through the keyhole and the cracks in the door, easily getting around the furniture he’d placed in front of the door, surrounding him and then going past him. And then, as suddenly as it began, the wind ceased.

The dog barked from behind him.

And then everything went black.

* * *

 

Cold. 

Everything was cold, he was cold, the air was cold, the ground - or was it a floor? - was cold. The surface underneath him was hard, solid, but not flat - too rough to be metal, it felt more like stone. 

Patton forced his eyes open and tried to get a grip on his surroundings. The room he was in was dark, but not dark enough that he couldn’t see. He could make out stone walls surrounding him on all sides except one, where the stone had been traded for thick metal bars which were glowing and occasionally sparked with some kind of energy - the sole light source in the area. Beyond the bars was what seemed to be a corridor of some sort, but there was no sign of a door - no sign of a way to escape. In one corner there was a small hole in the ground that seemed to lead to some form of a chute. The horrid smell coming from it gave Patton a pretty big hint as to its purpose.

Around his neck hung a collar, a heavy, cold piece of metal that was just ever so slightly too tight for him to breathe comfortably. He felt around it with his fingers and found no seam, as though the collar had been forged around his neck with no lock or key. A chain hung from the back of it, and that chain was in turn connected to the back wall - again, seemingly without a seam. The actual chain was fairly long and not  _ too  _ heavy, though, so he didn’t think it would prevent him from moving around the cell too much.

“L-logan? Roman?” he croaked, “A-anyone?”

There was no response. 

He tried to push himself off the floor but miserably failed. Every inch of his body ached, and he couldn’t find the strength to even sit up. Had he been any of the other Splinters, he might have tried to stay brave, or tried to come up with a plan to get out of here. But he wasn’t. No, he was Patton, he was the emotional one, and in a situation this horrible he did the only thing he could think of.

He rolled over onto his side, curled up into a ball, and cried.

He cried, and he cried, and he cried. For hours, he cried.

But nobody came.


	6. Prelude to heartbreak (And breaking of other kinds too.)

Silence ran through the living room of the small cottage in the woods. Virgil, Pranks, Missy, and Imaj were all sat down across the room. None of them had said a word since the hug - Virgil too shocked, and the others too guilty.

Shaking his head, Virgil stood up. He couldn’t take this silence any longer, he wanted answers.

“Where are we?” he asked, not looking anyone in the eye. “What is this place? Why are we here? And the monsters you mentioned, what are those?”

No one spoke for a few seconds, the other three exchanging cautious glances. Missy was squirming, Pranks was fidgeting with the hem of his shirt, and although Imaj had his usual smile on his face he was looking down at the ground and sitting unusually still. 

Missy was the first to speak up.

“This is the realm of the faded,” they said, “We’ve been able to put together that much. This is where Splinters - and memories - go when they fade. That’s why everything’s faded, monochrome. Forgotten. As for the monsters, they- ”

“They’re horrible,” said Pranks, cutting them off, “And we stay out of their way. That’s all that needs to be said about that.”

Missy gave him a look, but continued.

“I- I suppose you are right,” they said, “No need to describe those horrors to someone who’s been lucky enough to not have seen them yet. But, well, if we hadn’t found this cottage, and been able to barricade it like this- we’d be dead. Or worse.”

Pranks nodded.

“Yeah. It’s all thanks to-” he began, but he was interrupted.

By a scream.

Pranks and Missy flinched and Imaj stiffened. Virgil jumped, looking around, eyes blown wide in panic.

“What was that?” he shouted. Adrenaline was rushing through his veins, he was hyperaware of everything around him.

“S-s- someone was t-taken,” stammered Missy, “B-by the monsters.”

“Someone? What someone? Are there other people here?” asked Virgil.

“Not that we know of,” said Pranks, “You’re the first one to show up here in a long time. Whoever it was, they must have faded recently…”

Someone else had faded recently. The only Splinters in the Mindscape right now were Logan, Patton, and Roman. It had to be one of them. It had to be one of  _ his friends _ . With this in mind Virgil ran toward the door, only to be stopped by Imaj’s hand grabbing his arm and holding him in place.

“Anni-ann, don’t go!” he said, eternal smile still present on his face. “You can’t save them. You’ll be taken. You won’t come back! Please don’t leave, Anni-ann!”

“So what if I get taken?!” yelled Virgil and yanked his arm free. “I’m the worst Splinter the Mindscape has ever known, anyway. Whoever it was, it was one of my friends, and I’m going to save him.”

Before anyone could act he rushed out of the house, running aimlessly into the woods. He had no idea where the scream had come from, no idea where to search, but he had to do  _ something _ .

He’d always been a burden to everyone, he knew that. It was about time he did something good.

* * *

 “Patton! Roman! Logan! Are any of you out there?!”

He’d been searching for what felt like hours but with no luck. Resigned, he slumped against a nearby tree, pulling his knees to his chest and crying. 

“I’m sorry,” he said, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I wanted to save you, I promise, I tried, I’m sorry!”

Deep down he knew that he shouldn’t be this loud. The… monsters, whatever they were, would hear him, find him, come for him. But he didn’t care.

_ Let them come _ , he thought,  _ Let them tear me apart. Let them rip me to shreds. Let them burn me alive. Whatever fate I failed to save whoever fell from, lay it on me as well. _

As if an answer to his prayers tendrils shot out of the ground before lunging at him, surrounding him, pinning him to the ground. He tried to fight, tried to struggle, but it was no use. One tendril wound itself around his neck and his mouth, suffocating him. The combination of the lack of air and the pain of the rough treatment upsetting his already present wounds was too much- the world was blurry, dark, he couldn’t fight it anymore- 

Before he lost his consciousness, one last coherent thought ran through his head.

_ I’m sorry I couldn’t save anyone. _

* * *

 

Patton was awoken by the sound of footsteps.

He quickly shot up, the rush of adrenaline that his fear had given him overruling his pain for a second. His eyes darted around the room, landing on a…  _ thing _ standing outside the bars. It looked vaguely humanoid, but it’s entire form seemed to be almost dripping or fluid, like slime or mud. Much like the dog, it had tendrils coming out of it’s back, twisting and turning and filling up the room. Patton’s eyes didn’t linger for too long on the monster, though.

No, what  _ really _ grabbed his attention was the person - the  _ Splinter _ \- that the monster was carrying.

He was clad in all black - black jeans, black shirt, a black hoodie with a grey pattern on it. Remnants of black eyeshadow could be seen under his eyes. The left arm of his hoodie hung slack beside his body, as though there was nothing inside it. A collar similar to Patton’s own was around his neck, although it didn’t seem to be connected to anything. While Patton couldn’t quite place him, the Splinter looked very,  _ very  _ familiar.

The monster phased through the bars, carrying the Splinter with him, and set him down on the floor. It raised it’s head, seemingly looking at Patton, and then blinked out of existence. In the instant the monster disappeared, everything clicked into place, and Patton  _ remembered. _

“VIRGIL!” he screamed, ignoring his pain and bolting over to his friend. “Virgil, wake up, please!”

He shook the other’s shoulders, but the darker splinter barely reacted. He was breathing, though, which meant he was alive. Patton let out a sigh of relief. However, his concern quickly returned, as he noticed that something felt off about Anxiety’s left shoulder. And that arm of his hoodie still looked very… empty.

Slowly, he traced his hand around the other’s shoulder, confirming his fears. Virgil's left arm was missing. Gone. Somehow, after ending up in this world, he’d lost it. He’d  _ lost his arm _ . 

“Oh, Virge…” mumbled Patton. “What happened to you?” 

Patton gently picked the other splinter up and held him in his lap, letting Virgil lay against his chest. Patton himself scooted over to lean against the wall - it may be hard and cold, but it was something. And with Virgil sleeping in his arms, he slowly drifted off.


	7. Remembrance

“Something is not right about this,” said Logan, pacing back and forth in the commons room of the Mindscape.

“Well, yeah,” said Roman from his position in the couch.The Royal splinter was only half paying attention to his more logical counterpart, the rest of his concentration being captured by a particularly interesting episode of some TV show Thomas had been watching lately. “Half the Mindscape is missing."

“No, that’s not it,” said Logan, “I mean, yes, you are correct, a huge portion of the Mindscape is missing, but why? The Mindscape does not just... _collapse_ like this. Not unless something is seriously off. But what?”

“Why not?” asked Roman, “It’s not like the world likes us, and you know it. Things like us, things like this place - we’re not supposed to exist, anyway.”

Logan froze, stopping in his tracks, before spinning around to point at Roman.

“That’s it!” he exclaimed, “You _never_ acted like that before. I have known you for all my existence and not once have I seen you so… dismal. Pessimistic. You are supposed to be creativity, hope, dreams-- not a _defeatist_ . But the last few days you’ve been spouting negative comment after negative comment. And- and me too! Last night I woke up _crying!_ Me! Logic! The intellectual side, being controlled by emotions. The two of us have changed _drastically_ over the past few days!”

Roman blinked.

“You’re… right,” he said, straightening his back and standing up. “Sulking around like this… this isn’t- this isn’t like me. And waking up crying isn’t like _you_.”

“Why is this happening? There must be something I’m missing, I can’t figure this out,” said Logan, starting to pace again - more frantically this time.

“Easy, easy,” said Roman and stepped closer, grabbing Logan’s arm. “We don’t want you having a meltdown now, okay? We’ll figure this out.”

Logan stopped, nodding slowly before turning to face Roman.

“Yeah,” he said, taking a deep breath. “Yeah, we will.”

“Now let’s go over here and sit down so we can think properly, okay?” said Roman and put a hand on Logan’s back, leading him over to the couch where they both sat down. “What we know is, a large part of the Mindscape has disappeared, and for some reason that has caused us to act very differently. Now, you’re the smart one, tell me how this is connected.”

“I don’t know,” said Logan, “There’s something else missing, some last puzzle piece… The Mindscape has changed, we’ve changed- wait. We’ve changed. If we’ve changed, Thomas should have changed too. But he hasn’t - he’d have noticed a change this big and he’d have summoned us. And- and these changes, deep emotion and empathy in my case, negativity in you.. These aren’t new things, they’ve always been part of Thomas.”

“The areas of the Mindscape that disappeared… They were in two chunks, right?” asked Roman, “The first time was a quarter, then a third of the remains - two equally sized chunks, that just so happen to both have been about the size of the area of the Mindscape each of us controls.”

“You’re right,” said Logan, “Chunks the size of a Splinter’s domain disappearing, the two of us gaining new traits that Thomas has still always had… Roman, I think there used to be more of us.”

“What?!” exclaimed Roman, eyes widening. “Like, other Splinters?”

“This is the Mindscape, Roman. Everything here - including us - is made entirely from memories. If a Splinter were to disappear, it is reasonable to assume that they’d take all memories of them with them,” said Logan.

“And because they disappeared, we took on their traits… To keep Thomas from changing too much,” said Roman, looking over at Logan. “But, why? Why would two Splinters just disappear like that?”

“I don’t know!” said Logan, “Something must have changed recently in Thomas’s life, something that would make those two splinters less significant, or that suppressed them…”

They both looked up, gazes meeting as they spoke in unison.

“ _The medication_.”

“The first collapse was literally the day after he first started taking it,” said Logan, standing up and walking over to the TV, “So it’s reasonable to assume…”

With a wave of his hand the TV-show that had been running in the background was replaced with a slightly blurry but still readable image of a website Thomas’s psychiatrist had told him to visit after taking the medicine. Science stuff, instructions for taking the medicine… There. Side effects.

“Depression, trouble sleeping- no, that’s not it,” he mumbled, starting to read the list out loud, “Increased anxiety? No, that’s _definitely_ not it.. There! _Apathy!_ While this medication is meant to dampen anxiety, it can sometimes have too strong an effect and lead to apathy, the absence of emotion. If there were a pair of sides that were more… emotional, this side effect would hurt them if Thomas was affected. Maybe even hurt them enough that they’d disappear.”

“So… what do we do now?” asked Roman.

“Perhaps, if our memories could be reconstructed, we would have a chance to get them back,” said Logan, “...I think we need to pay Thomas a visit.”

* * *

 

 “You… want to rewatch old videos? Why? I thought you could do that from my memories, anyway?”

Confusion and concern were written all over Thomas’s face as he pulled up his computer and started waiting for the browser page to load.

“Under normal circumstances we could, yes, but your memories have been… compromised,” said Logan, “Most likely as a side effect of the medication you’ve been taking.”

“Wait, what?” asked Thomas, “I didn’t see memory loss as one of the potential side effects.”

“It’s not that- it’s more indirect,” said Roman, “We think, well, Thomas, how many of us splinters are there?”

“Two, and you’re both in front of me right now. Why do you ask?” answered Thomas.

“If there’s only the two of us, who was Roman arguing with in the Dark Side of Disney video? It wasn’t me,” said Logan, “And in the Negative Thinking video I explicitly remember stating that I couldn’t imagine holding a debate with Roman, so who was I debating against?”

“And in the Heart VS Mind video, if Logan is Mind then who is Heart?” continued Roman, “We think there’s more of us, Thomas. We think there’s two Splinters that we’ve somehow… forgotten, and the only thing we can think of that could save them is if we could remember them.”

Thomas frowned, nodding.

“You’re right… There _are_ more Splinters, it’s not just you two,” he said, browsing in on his YouTube channel now that the computer was _finally_ loading it. “Let’s see…”

The page loaded, and the little video thumbnails popped up. Logan and a dark-clad splinter in the debate video. The Q&A video, with Thomas surrounded by _four_ splinters - Logan, Roman, the dark-looking one, and a splinter clad in a bright blue shirt with a cardigan wrapped around his shoulders. ‘Dad’s Big Game Day Tips’ - a video they had forgotten even _existed_. And suddenly, the memories came flooding back.

“ _Patton_ ,” mumbled Logan, and he felt a pang of emotion in his chest as he remembered seeing the fatherly splinter’s room fall into the void.

“ _Virgil_ ,” whispered Roman, remembering all the times the two had fought only to make up later in the Mindscape (not that they’d ever let anyone know).

Thomas and his two Splinters looked at each other. Neither said another word, but the same question was ringing in all their minds.

_How could we ever have forgotten about them?_


	8. It's time to  b r e a k.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So.... when I originally posted this chapter I thought that the first part of what is now this chapter had been part of an earlier chapter... this is what happens when you don't keep track of what you've written and what you haven't. Also I edited the suffering a lil bit to make it even more... suffer-y. (2017-07-11)

Virgil woke up surrounded by warmth. At first, he thought he might be back in the normal Mindscape, that all of this might have been a horrible dream. Then he opened his eyes.

The first thing he saw was blue. A clear, vibrant blue that he would know anywhere. Patton’s shirt. Glancing up confirmed his suspicion - Patton was right there, sleeping, holding him. But their surroundings were grey, a cold, dark prison cell, and his arm was still missing. He was still in this hell, and now Patton was there too.

While the warmth of Patton’s body was certainly comforting, the position he was holding him in was kind of uncomfortable, so Virgil tried to wriggle loose. However, even in his sleep Patton was ridiculously protective, and he wouldn’t let him go. With a sigh, Virgil resigned himself to simply adjusting his position a bit so that there wasn’t as much pressure on his left shoulder. The wound where his arm had been still hurt, and when pressured from the right angle ghost pains would spike in his non-existent left arm.

“Patton,” he mumbled, “Patton, wake up!”

At first, Patton didn’t stir, but after a few more tries he started blinking his eyes open.

“Virr..?” he mumbled, seemingly still half asleep and unaware of the situation. However, in his confusion, he did loosen his grip on Virgil, allowing him to move out of his grip.

“Yes, Patton, it’s me, Virgil,” he said, “I know you were probably hoping for Princey or Logan, but I’m all you’ve got.”

Patton blinked, and he finally seemed to remember where he was.

“Virgil! Oh my god, you’re alive, I’m so sorry I forgot you I’m so sorry I didn’t come for you!” he yelled, launching himself forward to hug Virgil again. Virgil was taken by surprise, but hugged him back with his one arm. He wasn’t sure what Patton meant by ‘forgetting’ him, but he didn’t really care either.

“Yeah, Pat, I’m here. I’m okay. Well, mostly okay,” said Virgil, “I’m not sure I’m alive though. I’m not sure either of us are.”

Patton pulled back, confusion visible in his eyes.

“What do you mean, not alive?” he asked.

“We’ve faded, Patton,” answered Virgil, “I know, we both thought fading just meant ceasing to exist. Apparently we were wrong, and when you fade, you go to monochrome monster hell.”

Patton frowned.

“No,” he said, “This isn’t hell. It can’t be. I refuse to believe that such a thing would exist within Thomas’s mind.”

“Who knows,” shrugged Virgil, “Sure seems like hell to me.”

Tears were starting to well up in Patton’s eyes, and if everything that had happened already hadn’t, that sight broke Virgil's heart.

“Oh, oh Patton, no, don’t cry,” he said, trying to wipe Patton’s tears away with his hand. He took off the other’s glasses - knowing they would just get foggy if he kept them on - and put them aside, before returning his hand to the other’s cheek. He wanted to comfort him, but he didn’t know how. 

Patton sniffled, obviously trying to control his crying, but failing miserably. Not knowing what else to do, Virgil just hugged him, hoping he could do at least  _ something _ to ease the other’s pain. And Patton clung to him, tears staining his hoodie. And he cried, and he cried, and eventually Virgil started crying too, because they were  _ both  _ in this hell, and there was nothing either of them could do about it.

They sat there, holding each other, shaking and crying and desperately holding on to each other for some sense of comfort. And while it seemed like the tears would never end, eventually, they did.

Both of them were still shaking, still horribly upset, but they had cried until there were no more tears left to cry. Slowly, carefully, Virgil moved so as to sit next to Patton instead of in front of him. He didn’t say anything, but then Patton reached over and grabbed his hand. Anxiety looked up, and to his surprise, Patton was smiling. It wasn’t a very convincing smile, and it didn’t reach his eyes, but even in a situation like this the fatherly splinter was trying to stay positive.

“Hey, kiddo,” he croaked, squeezing Virgil's hand. “It’s gonna be okay. We’ll get out of here. I’m sure of it.”

Virgil didn’t believe him, and he was pretty sure Patton didn’t believe his own words either, but he squeezed Patton’s hand back and gave a small smile.

“Yeah,” he said, “We will.”

* * *

 

Virgil wasn’t sure how long he and Patton just sat there. After a while, they began talking - not about their situation but about meaningless, frivolous things. All in an attempt to forget where they were. And it worked, to some extent - Patton even started making a couple dad jokes, and for the first time in a long time Virgil actually laughed.

Of course, this peace was doomed to end.

In the middle of telling a joke, Patton just stopped. He wasn’t speaking, he wasn’t moving, he was staring in horror at something behind Anxiety. Something in the corridor.

Virgil quickly turned around, and was faced with one of the more humanoid of the monsters. It was staring at them, or at least it seemed like it was, but otherwise it was completely still. And then it wasn’t.

In a flash, the creature had moved from being on the other side of the bars to standing in the middle of the cell, holding Virgil by the chain attached to his collar. And as it did, the collar started  _ shrinking _ around his neck. Panicked, Virgil grasped at his collar, trying desperately to get it to loosen but to no avail. He could feel his lungs burning as his consciousness started to slip, he could hear Patton pleading, he could feel his eyes wanting to roll back into his head- and then the creature let him go.

As the collar expanded to its normal size Virgil fell to the ground, gasping for air. The monster was gone, he was pretty sure, but that had been  _ close _ . He had almost  _ died -  _ well, assuming he could get more dead than this, he wasn’t really sure. He could feel Patton pulling him up, holding him, whispering words of comfort, but he didn’t have the presence of mind to understand a word. Instead, he just clung to Patton with his one arm, wishing that he would wake up, that he could go home, that this nightmare that had become his reality would end.

* * *

 

Less than an hour had passed when the creatures returned. This time, the creature that ‘stood’ in the corridor wasn’t humanoid, hell, it didn’t look like any animal or monster Virgil could think of. A formless shape of darkness floating above the ground, pitch black, almost liquid, but not shining - looking at it was like staring into a black hole.

Patton immediately moved to get in front of Virgil, who reached out to try and stop him. It didn’t work. 

“Leave him alone,” said Patton, “You’ve hurt him enough. If you’re going to hurt anyone, hurt me.”

“Patton, no…” said Virgil, but he was cut off by the creature, well, he was pretty sure that it was  _ laughing _ .

It was a horrid sound, like radio static mixed with thunder mixed with fingernails on a chalkboard, and it was so, so,  _ loud _ . Patton clasped his hands to his ears and collapsed to the ground - Virgil tried to do the same, but with only one hand he  _ couldn’t block it out _ .

It continued, and it continued, and it continued, and it seemed like there’d be no end to it. Something wet and warm seeped out of Virgil's ears and it took him a few minutes to realize that his ears were  _ actually _ bleeding-

And then it stopped. For a second, Virgil allowed himself to be thankful, thinking that maybe that was all the creatures were going to do this time. Of course, he was wrong.

The formless shape phased through the bars, moving toward the two splinters. Patton turned his head, looking back at Virgil, fear etched in his face. Virgil wanted to do something, to reach out, to try and save his friend, but he was frozen in fear. The dark mass surrounded Patton, the trait  _ screaming  _ as he was completely engulfed. The screams continued, more muffled through the body of the creature- and then they  _ stopped _ .  

“No!” yelled Virgil, too frozen in fear to do anything but plead, “Let him go! Please! D-don’t do this, he doesn’t deserve this, I do, I’m sorry, I’m sorry!”

The creature, which had stopped moving once it had swallowed Patton, started moving it again - this time toward Virgil. Fear drove him to back up against the wall, to try and get away, but it was no use. The creature reached him too, and it surrounded him, and it hadn’t even touched him yet but the air near it was so  _ hot _ and it  _ hurt _ . And then it did, and  _ fuck _ , it was like molten iron, like solid flames, it was  _ so hot too hot  _ and it  _ burned _ and it  _ stung _ and  _ hurt so fucking much _ and it was  _ everywhere _ in his mouth his throat his lungs and now he understood why Patton had stopped screaming. It was worse than anything he’d ever experienced - not even the darkness that had greeted him when he first got to this hellish world was this bad.

And then, just like with the collar, the moment before he felt he was about to go unconscious from the pain, the creature seemingly evaporated around him, turning into a dark cloud that flew out of the room. At least, it seemed like the creatures were done for now.

Virgil fell to the ground, and the loud  _ thud _ beside him made him aware that Patton had done the same. Every inch of his body was still aching, but he forced himself to open his eyes and reach out to his companion. He didn’t have the energy to push himself off the floor, but he managed to crawl over to Patton, gently laying his arm around him. To his relief the contact was soothing rather than scalding, Patton turning around to cling to Virgil just as hard as Virgil clung to him. Patton was crying, shaking, sobbing, and Virgil was vaguely aware that he was doing the same.

This time, Virgil knew, things weren’t going to get better. They were going to get worse. They were trapped here, in this hellish world, doomed to be tortured forever. 


	9. The Staircase

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one's a short one, I know, but it needed to be this way.

Roman and Logan were stood in the corridor outside the commons, looking at the void where Patton’s room used to be. On the other side of the commons was an equally large void that once had been Virgil's room. Patton and Virgil were  _ gone _ and for all they knew they were never coming back. Thomas had promised to contact his doctor to try and find an alternative medication that wouldn’t be making him apathetic, but both Logan and Roman knew that wouldn’t bring back Patton and Virgil. Maybe, if they were lucky, two  _ new _  Splinters would appear to take on their characteristics, but the old Morality and Anxiety were gone. Faded. Dead.

And they hadn’t even remembered them.

“Are you sure there’s nothing we can do,” asked Roman, “Are you sure they’re not still… down there, somewhere?” 

“I don’t see why they would be,” said Logan, “They’ve been forgotten. This place is made of memories. Logically, they shouldn’t even exist anymore.”

“But if they don’t even exist, why can we  _ remember _ them?” asked Roman. “I mean, I know we were reminded of them because of the videos, but because we were reminded of them all the other memories came back too. If they truly didn’t exist, shouldn’t those memories be gone too?”

“You…” mumbled Logan, “You actually have a point. I didn’t think of that. Must be all of these emotions-  _ Patton _ ’s emotions- clouding my head.”

“If we were to build a staircase going down there… do you think we could find them?” asked Roman, “Do you think we could save them?”

“Well,” said Logan, “I suppose, it is possible. Although, first...”

He pulled a coin out of his pocket and after a bit of hesitation threw it into the hole. At first it seemed like nothing would happen - the void was just too deep, seemingly without bottom, but then they heard something. A ‘splash’, like the sound of water.  _ There was something down there _ .

The two focused and started channeling their energy into transforming the Mindscape, making a stairway descending into the darkness below. Logan soon ran out of energy and collapsed - he was never one for creation - but Roman kept going. The Mindscape didn’t have enough matter to keep forming the stairs, so he started dissolving his own room, and when that wasn’t enough he used up Logan’s room too, and the kitchen, and a whole bunch of the corridors until there was nothing left but a very sparse version of the commons and the corridor he and Logan were in. He was just about to give up, when finally, he felt it - he’d hit some kind of bottom. He’d done it. 

Exhausted, he fell to the ground, collapsing next to Logan. He’d built the stairs. Rescuing could be done… tomorrow…


	10. Hope

“Anni-ann isn’t coming back, is he?” 

“No, Imaj,” said Missy, “He’s not. You know that. People who get taken never come back.”

For a moment, Imaj looked almost sad. As though he wanted to cry. But then, he smiled again, and looked up at Missy.

“That’s okay! I’ve still got you and Anks! Come on, Missy, wanna play house with me?” said the child, looking up at Missy with the biggest puppy-eyes he could manage.

Missy gave a small, forced, laugh. They kneeled to get to Imaj’s eye level, and gently patted the child on the head.

“Not today, okay Imaj?” they said, “Missy is feeling a bit tired.”

Imaj looked confused for a second, then smiled again and hugged Missy.

“That’s okay! I can ask Anks, or play by myself!! It’ll be just as fun!” he said, then let go of Missy to go play in some other room. 

Missy sighed, then went into the one bedroom of the house and collapsed on the bed.

They felt sorry for that poor child, they really did. They and Pranks had come across him the day they entered the Mindscape, and he had shown them the cottage and told them how to hide in this world. The entire time, the child had been smiling. At first, they’d thought it was creepy - and they still kind of did, to be honest - so they’d asked about it. Imaj’s answer? 

“ _ Well, I can’t be sad, now can I? If I keep smiling then everything will be okay! That’s what Pat-Pat told me! _ ”

That poor child had been stuck here alone for so, so long. To deal with it, he had started to suppress his fear, his sadness, all emotions aside from pure joy. That’s why he was the one who could go out into the outside world. The monsters were attracted to negative emotions - fear, sadness, anger - and the child was almost completely void of them. Because he’d locked it all away. Because when he got here, he didn’t have a cottage, or a hiding space, or anything like that. No, the only way he’d been able to defend himself was by sticking to words of comfort from a friend he knew he would never see again, and keeping a smile on his face no matter what.

Imaj wouldn’t cry anymore, no matter how terrible his life got. So Missy cried enough for both of them, instead.

* * *

 

“Missy! Anks! You won’t believe what I saw today!” shouted Imaj as soon as the two had let him into the house.

“What did you see, Imaj?” asked Missy, kneeling down to get to Imaj’s eye level. From the corner of their eye they saw Pranks doing the same thing beside them.

“A magic staircase!! From the sky!” said Imaj, “And it was bright and it had golden decor on it! Gold, Missy! Color!”

Missy’s eyes widened. The only things with color in this realm were things that came from the mindscape, specifically things connected to or created by Splinters. If there was suddenly a staircase… did that mean this place wasn’t some other dimension, but instead just situated  _ under _ the mindscape? Did that mean the still existing splinters had found them? Did that mean they had a chance of getting out?

“That’s amazing, Imaj,” said Pranks, his voice filled with wonder. He glanced at Missy, and they met his gaze for a moment, then both turned back toward Imaj. “Do you think you could show us?”

Imaj nodded.

“Come on! Come on!”

* * *

 

The stairway wasn’t far from the house, it only took them about five minutes to get there. Imaj was right - it  _ was _ beautiful. And the swirling decor that covered it was indeed  _ golden _ , colored,  _ not monochrome _ . Missy had never thought they would see color on an inanimate object ever again.

“Let’s go,” said Pranks and stepped onto the first step, “We  _ need  _ to go up there. I can feel it.”

Pranks rushed up the stairs, and Imaj followed close behind. Missy took one last look around, before running after the other two.

The stairs were long, and reached high, but as Missy ran up them they felt a sense of comfort, of safety, that they hadn’t in a long time. These stairs were safe. These stairs would protect them. 

Somehow, despite the sky being miles away, within less than a minute Missy had run up into the blackness that covered this world. A barrier of sorts surrounded the stairs, keeping whatever darkness was out there from getting to them, but they were pretty sure that was the cold darkness which greeted everyone who came to this world. It, too, seemed to go on for miles, but somehow they were able to cross it in a matter of seconds. 

When they did, they found themself stood in a hallway. A very familiar hallway. On the floor in front of them laid two splinters they never thought they’d see again. Roman and Logan, passed out from exhaustion. They were the ones who had built the stairs, Missy figured. All in all, this could only mean one thing.

They were back in the Mindscape.


	11. Despair

From his position in Patton’s lap, Virgil started to stir from his slumber. They’d decided to take turns sleeping - partially to keep watch (even though that didn’t serve much purpose), partially because neither of them could fall asleep without the other rubbing their back and whispering comforting words. This was the beginning of an awake shift, though - Patton had already slept.

“Morning,” mumbled Virgil, crawling off from Patton and using his one hand to move some hair out of his face. Virgil still hadn’t told Patton what had happened to the other one, and Patton didn’t want to ask. Their situation was terrible enough as it was - he didn’t want to risk upsetting Virgil even more than being stuck here already did.

“Morning to you too,” said Patton, trying to pretend like nothing was wrong. He had almost figured out how to stop his voice from shaking whenever he said anything.

They didn’t say much else, they just sat there, in silence. Patton guessed he could have tried to lighten the mood a bit - but what was the point, when any peace they found was just going to get torn down again in only a few hours?

* * *

 He may have been apathetic in waiting, but when the monsters came back fear once again spiked in Patton’s chest. Virgil was taking a nap, but he quickly shook him awake and tightly gripped his hand. This time he didn’t want them to be separated - if they were both going to suffer then they would do so together.

The creature that had appeared this time was another humanoid, although in place of normal fingers it had what appeared to be razor-sharp claws, and Patton could already guess what this torture session was going to involve. As the creature moved closer, effortlessly passing through the bars, he squeezed Virgil's hand. He felt the other squeeze back. And then the creature was upon them.

Using the tendrils growing from its back, the creature pinned the two up against the wall. They both yelped at the impact, but Patton refused to let go of Virgil's hand, only gripping it tighter. He felt Virgil do the same.

And then Virgil screamed.

The creature had gone for the darker personality first, lightly dragging a ‘finger’ across his cheek. Its touch looked as light as a feather, but it still broke the skin, a shallow gash forming behind it. The area around the wound soon started swelling up, the skin growing pink, which led Patton to suspect those claws weren’t just cutting.

Patton tried to protest, tried to get it to hurt him instead, tried to do _anything_ to protect his friend, but the moment he opened his mouth a tendril wrapped itself around his face and prevented him from speaking. Tears started to well up in his eyes - Virgil didn’t deserve this. Patton wanted to protect him. He was the fatherly one, the eldest, he was supposed to take care of the others.

A tendril came up around Virgil's forehead to keep his head still, as the creature continued cutting up his cheek - first going lightly, then carving deeper, making intricate patterns across his face. Virgil was screaming and crying and there was _nothing that Patton could do to help him_. He squeezed his hand tighter, trying to provide some sense of comfort, but Virgil didn’t even respond.

After what seemed like an eternity the creature pulled away from Virgil's face, and Patton allowed himself to think that maybe this was it, maybe it would move on to him now, maybe it wouldn’t hurt Virgil more.

He was wrong.

The creature slashed across Virgil's chest, shredding his shirt to pieces and exposing more of his flesh - as well as the three deep gashes it had just created. It continued, carving more and more patterns into his chest, and then his stomach, leaving no inch of exposed skin untouched. And Virgil screamed the whole time - he screamed, and he cried, and he begged.

“ _Please_ ,” he cried, “ _Please, stop, please don’- AAAAH! P-please...”_

Patton kept his grip on the other’s hand, even though he knew the other probably didn’t even feel it next to all of his pain. He was crying, too, now, wishing the creature would stop hurting Virgil and move on to him. He could take it, he was sure - he would do anything for his family.

And then, finally, the creature stopped. Patton steeled himself, expecting the creature to come for him next, but it didn’t. Instead, it just let them go and walked off, leaving some strange behind package on the ground.

The moment the tendrils released them, Virgil and Patton both fell to the ground. Patton got up fairly quickly, but Virgil wasn’t moving - aside from shaking and crying and whimpering in pain, that is.

“Virgil! Oh, god, Virgil!” screamed Patton as he rushed to flip the other onto his back - he had fallen on his stomach, and letting those injuries press into the ground must hurt a lot. “Virgil, I’m here now, it’s over, it’s okay. I- I got you, kiddo. I got you.”

Virgil whimpered - a small, broken sound, and it absolutely broke Patton’s heart. He lifted a hand to gently brush his fingers through Virgil's hair, trying to comfort him in any way he could. He couldn’t make the pain go away, but he was determined to do whatever he could to try and take Virgil's mind off of it.

Patton remembered the package that the creature had dropped, and as it was within reach he reached over to grab it. As he opened it, he found that to his relief, it was nothing dangerous but rather a first aid kit complete with bandages and water and everything.

“Alright, Virge, I- I have some bandages and stuff. We- we have to stop the bleeding,” he said, trying to keep his voice steady. There was a large cloth in the package, so he took it out and pressed it to Virgil's chest and stomach. Virgil yelped, and Patton winced in sympathy. “I’m so sorry, kiddo, I know this hurts but we have to stop the bleeding. It’s gonna be okay. Shhhh.”

The next hour or so passed in a blur, with Patton doing his best to clean and dress Virgil's wounds without hurting him more. Through the whole process, Virgil was whimpering, crying, yelping, begging for the pain to go away, and Patton wished he could do something more. But he couldn’t. All he could do was make sure he stayed alive.

Once he was done Patton once again leaned against the wall, and just as he had done on their first night together in this hell he took Virgil in his arms and let him rest against his stomach. He held him tightly - but made sure to not press against any of his injuries - and played with his hair, wishing that he could do more.

“It’s alright, kiddo,” he mumbled, “I’ve got you. I’ve got you. I’m not letting you go. I’ll protect you next time, I promise.”

“D-don’t…” croaked Virgil, “I- I deserve…”

He didn’t have the energy to finish his sentence. Exhaustion caught up to him, and he collapsed against Patton’s chest. Patton sighed, and kept stroking Virgil's hair. He hoped this would all be over soon, that it would all just have been a bad dream and he could wake up. He knew that sometimes, if you fall asleep in a dream, you wake up. With that thought in mind, he slowly drifted off, still holding Virgil close to his body


	12. The tale of Imaj

“So… Let me get this straight,” said Roman, “You’re saying, beyond those stairs, there is a hellish dimension populated by monsters, and those monsters have taken Virgil and Patton?” 

He, Logan, Missy, Imaj, and Pranks were sitting in a circle in the corridor - it was the only part of the Mindscape left intact, and none of them were feeling up to going down into the forest any time soon. 

Pranks nodded.

“That’s our understanding of it, yeah,” he said, “And since we’ve been living down there for the past- how old is Thomas now?”

“28,” said Logan.

“For the past eleven years - twenty-one in Imaj’s case,” Pranks continued, “I think we’re the best source you’ve got right now.”

“In addition to that, these last few days, larger and larger chunks of the Mindscape have been disappearing into the void,” said Logan, “It is only reasonable to assume that this will continue, unless something changes.”

Imaj shook his head, but nobody noticed.

“Well, what do you suppose we do then?” asked Roman, “We can’t just sit around and wait for our inevitable destruction.”

“G-guys,” mumbled Imaj, but his voice was drowned out by the others.

“I don’t know!” exclaimed Logan, “None of this makes any sense!”

“ _ STOP!” _

Imaj stood up, yelling at the top of his lungs. The rest of the group immediately went silent, looking up at the child.

“You’re wrong. You’re all wrong. S’not gonna break anymore,” he said, “Anni-ann is gone. I’m here. S’not gonna break anymore!”

“Imaj…” began Missy, “What do you mean?”

* * *

 

_ Once upon a time, there was a little boy named Thomas. _

_ Thomas was a very special boy - while many children have imaginary friends, his imaginary friends were  _ real _. He didn’t really know why, but for as long as he could remember, the Splinters had been with him.  _

_ Pat-pat, who was kind and thoughtful and acted a bit like Ma and Pa. Lo-lo, who was logical and analytical, and knew almost everything! Almost as much as the adults. Ro-ro, who was so passionate and encouraging and wanted to do new things. And Majy, who saw patterns where there were none, who saw rabbits in the clouds and faces in the trees, who saw the good in everyone and everything. _

_ And then one day, another Splinter showed up. _

_ Anni-ann wasn’t like the other splinters. He was sad, and scared. And because he was scared, he lashed out at everyone and everything. Majy tried to help him, tried to see the good in him. He almost managed. But almost was not enough. One day, Anni-ann lashed out at Majy, too. _

_ “Go away, Majy!” the darker Splinter had yelled, “All you do is get us into danger! All you do is pretend! We’d be better off without you!”  _

_ Anni-ann did not know the power of his words, especially in such a young and fragile mind. Majy, the Splinter of Imagination, faded, and with him a fifth of the Mindscape. And he was forgotten. _

_ But Majy did not forget himself. Majy stayed alive. He wrapped himself in memories, thoughts, emotions, anything he could get at. And he survived. _

_ He woke up in a forest of black and white. Forgotten memories, repressed emotions - those were all he had been able to grasp at. And those memories were what built the world around him.  _

_ He wandered his dark mindscape, alone, so, so alone. He cried, until there were no more tears to cry. And that was when the creatures found him. _

_ “You’ve been forgotten,” they said, “Just like us. But we will take care of you. We will help you. With our help, you can be remembered again.” _

_ And Majy believed them. _

_ With help from the creatures, he pulled at the Mindscape. Smaller, more insignificant Splinters began falling. Some lasted longer than the others. The creatures told Majy that this would help, that if he kept going he would be remembered. And so, he did. _

_ The creatures took the Splinters that fell, and carried them away. Majy did not know what happened to him, but the creatures told him this was for the good of everyone, and he believed them. _

_ And then, two of them escaped. _

_ Majy found them, running through the forest, the creatures chasing him. He saw fear in the other’s eyes, he saw gashes on one’s arms and burns on the other’s chest, he saw blood trailing behind the two as they ran. And he realized, the creatures had lied. _

_ “STOP,” he screamed, in the link between his mind and the creatures, “STOP HURTING THEM!” _

_ The creatures stopped. _

_ “Why?” they asked, “Don’t you want to be free? Don’t you want to be remembered?” _

_ “Not if it means hurting people!” cried Majy, “Please, stop!” _

_ “We cannot stop,” said the creatures, “If we stop, we will die. We will not allow that to happen. But, if it will make you happier, we suppose we can spare these two. So long as you keep bringing in more.” _

_ Not knowing what else to do, Majy agreed. The creatures showed him a house, and he in turn showed the house to the two Splinters. He lied, told them he had nothing to do with the creatures, told them the reason they weren’t hurting him was that he kept smiling. With help of the creatures, he made them forget that they had ever been captured. Majy couldn’t save everyone, but he had saved Anks and Missy.  _

_ Other Splinters fell, and Majy pretended to try and save them. He always did - otherwise, Anks and Missy would grow suspicious. He couldn’t let them know, they’d run from him, and then the creatures would take them, too. He kept pulling - not for his own sake, he had given up on being remembered, but to protect Anks and Missy. _

_ And then Anni-ann fell. _

_ Majy wanted to be angry, Anni-ann was the reason he’d been stuck down here, the reason all this had happened. But Anni-ann was important, he knew that. Anni-ann was like him and Ro-ro and Pat-pat and Lo-lo, a core part of Thomas’s very being. So he pushed his anger down, and saved him. But he still kept pulling. _

_ He didn’t need to leave to know that the next Splinter who fell was Pat-pat; he could feel it. And when Pat-pat fell, Anni-ann ran to save him. He realized, that if he kept pulling, all the Splinters would end up falling. He would end up killing Thomas. And so, for the first time in twenty-one years, he let go. _

_ The creatures were furious, they demanded more. But Majy refused. Enough people had gotten hurt. No one else was going to get hurt because of him. _

_ And that’s when the staircase broke through the sky. _

_ It was bright, colorful, filled with hope. The creatures couldn’t go near it. It was their way out. _

_ Majy had stopped pulling, and hope had entered the world again. _

 


	13. I blindly support you

Virgil wasn’t waking up.

He still had a pulse, and he was breathing ever-so-faintly, but it had been at least a day and he  _ wasn’t waking up _ . Patton didn’t know what he’d done wrong, he’d tried his best to take care of him, but he still wasn’t responding.

On the other hand, the creatures hadn’t been reappearing either, so that was a small relief. He really didn’t want to think about what would happen if they came for a visit while Virgil was like this.

“C’mon, Virgil,” he mumbled, holding the unconscious Splinter close to his chest. “Wake up. I- I can’t do this alone.”

Virgil didn’t respond, he didn’t even stir, and Patton clung tighter to him.

* * *

 

Patton had hoped the creatures wouldn’t reappear until Virgil woke up. He was wrong.

He’d fallen asleep, clutching Virgil’s seemingly lifeless form. When he woke up, Virgil was on the floor, and he was being slammed against a wall by the tendrils of yet another humanoid creature.

“Wha-what are you going t-to do to me?” he whimpered, eyes wide open in fear, “Please, please have mercy!”

The creature stepped closer. One tendril reached up to snatch his glasses, throwing them to the side, making them shatter as they hit the floor. Then, through blurry eyes, Patton watched as the creature raised one of it’s ‘hands’ - although it looked more like a.. Spoon? He couldn’t quite tell.

One tendril wrapped around his forehead and another one around his jaw and into his mouth, keeping him both silenced and unable to move his head. The creature raised its spoon-hand toward his face. Patton realized what was going to happen and squeezed his eyes shut, trying to escape it, but to no avail. Smaller tendrils pulled them open, the spoon-hand now less than an inch from his left eye. And then it went in.

He tried to scream, biting down on the tendril in his mouth, but to no avail. There was nothing he could do as the creature’s ‘hand’ pulled his eyeball clean out of the socket. His blood ran cold as he saw the creature bring the eye to its mouth, lick it, and then  _ swallow it whole _ . What’s worse, seconds later, the eye reappeared, pushing itself out through the creature’s face. That was  _ his eye _ , stolen, staring back at him, and he wanted to scream and cry and beg but  _ there was nothing he could do _ .

The creature raised its ‘hand’ again, moving toward Patton’s remaining eye. He was too frozen in shock to even try and shut it. The creature made contact, and Patton’s world went black.

That didn’t mean the pain went away though. He tried to scream, he tried to pull himself loose, tears mixed with the blood running out of his empty eye sockets. He felt the creature pull away, felt it let him go, felt it let him fall to the ground. 

“Please,” he screamed, “Please, no, give them back! Please make it stop!  _ Please!” _

* * *

 

There was a hand on his cheek, and Patton flinched, pulling away from the touch.

“Patton! Patton, it’s me. Virgil,” said a voice, “Please, let me help you.”

Patton relaxed a bit at that, blindly reaching out toward the voice. He felt Virgil’s hand in his, and he held on tightly, letting the other pull him up first into a sitting position, and then into a tight embrace.

“V-v-Virgil, they- they took- they  _ took my eyes _ , I can’t- I  _ can’t see _ ,” he cried, trying to hide his face in Virgil’s shoulder. Virgil pulled him closer with his one arm and began rubbing his back.

“I know, Pat, I know,” he said, “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

Patton felt something wet on his shoulder, and he realized Virgil was crying too. He clung tighter, holding on to Virgil with everything he had.

Virgil had been right. They were never going to be okay again.


	14. I will break down the gates of Heaven

“We can’t just leave them there!” burst Roman, “Virgil and Patton need us!”

“Well,” said Logan, “What do you suppose we do? We have no weapon, no plan, and almost no knowledge about the Creatures holding them captured. The knowledge we do have comes from a child who apparently made a pact with them - not the most reliable of sources, especially considering he’s already lied about them several times.”

The two had walked about halfway down the stairs to get some privacy - they didn’t want the other Splinters hearing this conversation.

“So?” said Roman, “We have to do _something_! Anything!”

“Roman, there is nothing we _can_ do. You heard Imaj - he can seal up this hole now, for good,” said Logan, “I- I don’t like the idea of leaving Patton and Virgil behind any more than you do, but we have to - it’s the only rational choice. Thomas has already lost half of his core personality, if he loses any more of us who knows what will happen?”

“That’s beside the point, Logic!” yelled Roman, “Patton and Virgil are our _friends_ , and they are being _tortured_. What kind of a Prince would I be if I just let that happen?”

With that, the Prince stormed off, running down the stairs. Logan looked on, then sighed and walked up the stairs.

* * *

 

Normally, Roman would never recommend running in stairs. But this was an emergency, and he _was_ a Prince - no stairs would defeat him, and certainly not ones that he had created. Descending to the dimension below took almost no time at all.

He stepped out into the forest, looking around. At first, it seemed like he was alone, but then he saw it. Out of the corner of his eye, the flash of a dark tendril. He turned around, pulling his sword out of its sheath - and sliced cleanly through the tendril that was rushing toward him. The creature that it had come from, a large wolf-like shadow, let out a yelp of pain and ran back into the forest. It had obviously not been expecting Roman to fight back.

“Come back here, you!” shouted Roman, running after the creature, “You are one of the creatures that hurt my friends, are you not? I will not forgive this!”

He chased the creature further into the forest. For a wolf, the creature was quite slow - Roman could easily keep up with it. The creature kept running, and Roman was right behind it. Until suddenly, he wasn’t - the creature’s speed rose sharply, and it sprinted away into the distance. Roman looked around, and realized he had no idea where he’d gone, or where the stairs were.

“Shit,” he mumbled, putting his sword back in its sheath as it was quite cumbersome to just carry around. “Not good. Not good at all.”

He looked up toward the sky to try and see if he could see the stairs, but the only thing he could see were the trees, obscuring view of the sky. That, and the eyes glowing in the darkness.

The creature had done more than just lead him astray, he realized. It had led him straight into a trap.

As if waiting for him to come to that realization, tendrils suddenly struck out from the shadows. Roman dodged and jumped over them, once again pulling out his sword and cutting off as many as he could. At least the creatures seemed vulnerable to his sword, and he thanked the heavens for that. But the tendrils just kept coming, from every direction, from every angle, and he knew that he wouldn’t be able to fight forever.

And then, just as he was about to give up, a bright light flashed through the area. All the creatures dropped dead, and Roman spun to face the source of the flash.

“I told you, leaving to fight the Creatures without a plan is a fool’s errand. Good thing I have one.”

_"Logan?!"_


	15. A thousand Angels stand waiting for me

“Yes, Roman, that is my name,” said Logan, stepping closer. He was carrying a large bag, with various pieces of machinery sticking out from the top of it. Beside him stood some sort of device - it appeared to be composed of a lightbulb and a bunch of mirrors, and although Roman didn’t know too much about all that technological stuff Logan was so fascinated by he assumed that the device had been the source of the flash. “I must say, I am glad this thing works as intended. Considering their… shadow-like nature, I had assumed the creatures would be weak to intense light, but I had not been able to test my hypothesis until now.”

Roman was speechless. He dropped his sword to the ground. He looked Logan in the eye.

And then he rushed forward, embracing the other in a tight hug.

“I knew you wouldn’t abandon them,” he said, “I knew you’d come through.”

Logan stiffened in shock, but steadied himself and awkwardly hugged Roman back. 

“You most certainly did not,” said Logan, “There is no possible way you could have predicted this outcome. I was not intending on following you when you last saw me.”

Roman pulled back and looked Logan in the eye.

“I knew,” he said, “One day you’ll understand how. Now, come on, we have some friends to find.”

Logan nodded, and went to pack up the device.

* * *

 

“The Creatures leave behind an electromagnetic field,” explained Logan as he and Roman walked through the forest, “And it can be traced using this.”

He held up another device, with a whole bunch of flashing lights and numbers that made no sense whatsoever to Roman.

“Using this, I can track locations where there is a high concentration of Creatures. That’s how I found you,” he continued. He pressed a few buttons, and a display lit up with what seemed to be some sort of a map. Small red dots were scattered about the map, but there was one area in particular where they seemed very concentrated. Logan pointed to that area. “Right now, aside from a few other traps like the one you ran into, the only large concentration of Creatures is right here. While I have no way of knowing for sure, it is likely that that’s where they’re keeping Virgil and Patton.”

Roman nodded, pretending he was understanding a word of what Logan was saying. What mattered was, Logan knew where Virgil and Patton were, and he knew how to defeat the monsters keeping them there. That was all he really needed to know.

It was a tower. Roman was  _ literally _ about to rescue his friends in distress from a tower. 

Of course, it wasn’t a very fairytale-like tower. If anything, it looked more science fiction - clean white walls stretching up into the sky, the entire building twisting and coming to an end in a sharp point. Creatures filled the clearing around it - some wandered, looking as though they were guarding it, but the vast majority were just… standing. Waiting in line, trying to get into the tower, trying to do… whatever it was that they do. Roman wasn’t sure he really wanted to know the details.

“You sure they’re in there?” he whispered. He and Logan were hiding in the edge of the forest - close enough to have a good view of the tower, but remaining out of sight from the Creatures.

“Positive,” answered Logan.

The two stood in silence for a bit. Roman  _ really  _  hoped Logan was right about this.

“So, what’s the plan?” asked Roman, breaking the silence. 

“The plan is,” said Logan,  “We kill the Creatures. The device should be able to do it, but it has a limited range and takes a while to recharge. I’m going to need to get a fair bit into the field and set it up, but I’ll need you to protect me while I do it. Remember, you just need to hold them off long enough for me to set up the device.”

“I think I can do that,” nodded Roman. “We ready to go?”

“One more thing,” said Logan. He reached into the bag and pulled out a small metal cylinder with a button on the side of it. “I think this will be more efficient than your sword.”

Roman took the cylinder, turning it over in his hands. It was the perfect size to be a sword hilt, but lacking the blade part. On one side, there was a hole, and there seemed to be some kind of generator inside it. 

“Is this- Is this what I think it is?” said Roman, turning the hole away from his face.

“Press the button on the side,” said Logan. “But make sure it’s not aimed at one of us.”

Roman did as he said. A beam of focused light shot out from the hole, ending about a metre from the edge of the hilt. The construct whirred just loud enough to be audible and as Roman experimentally swung the weapon around it made a whooshing noise.

Roman looked Logan in the eye.

“This is  _ awesome! _ ” he said, “Now let’s go kick some monster ass.”


	16. Take my Heart and I'll lay down my Weapons

“Attention, all you cruel beasts! I, Prince Roman of the Mindscape, am here to slay you all!” 

Just as he had expected all the Creatures turned to face Roman, who had ran out a fair bit into the field. He held his sword in his left hand and the lightsaber Logan had made for him in his right, legs parted in a battle stance.

The Creatures rushed at him, but he was ready. Moving gracefully from enemy to enemy, he sliced and stabbed his way through the Creatures, one after another, rushing further into the field. He was vaguely aware of Logan running behind him, already starting to reassemble the device as he was running.

“This should be far enough,” shouted Logan, “I’m going to set the device up, you focus on keeping them away now!”

“Got it!” nodded Roman, decapitating a particularly nasty one. 

He glanced around, keeping track of all the Creatures closing in on him and Logan. Like a hurricane of light and sharp edges, he danced around the battlefield. Not a single claw, tendril, or fang would get to Logan, he was gonna make sure of it.

The Creatures kept coming, in larger and larger masses as the ones who’d been standing in line noticed them and went on the offensive. Roman swore under his breath, but kept going. One by one the monsters fell, but he could feel himself getting tired. 

“Hurry up, Lo! I can’t do this much longer!” he yelled, dodging a tendril before slicing through it with the lightsaber. 

“I’m working as quickly as I can, I promise,” shouted Logan back, “I’m almost finished!”

“You better be,” mumbled Roman, raising his lightsaber as a Creature leaped at him and cleaving it in half.

From the corner of his eye, he noticed one Creature had gotten dangerously close to Logan. There was no way he was going to be able to run fast enough to get in between, so there was no choice but to get creative.

“Logan, dodge!” he yelled, throwing his sword in the direction of the creature.

Logan hunkered down and the sword sailed right over his head, ending up embedded in the Creature’s skull. Roman quickly ran around, pulling the sword out and finishing the creature off before moving on to the next enemy.

He kept swinging, kept dodging, kept stabbing, even though his energy was running out. He had to keep going, just a little bit longer, just a little bit…

A flash of light tore through the area. The Creatures howled in pain, and Roman instinctively dropped his swords and covered his ears - the sound was horrible. He was sure it hadn’t been this bad in the clearing.

The light faded, and all the Creatures lay slain on the ground. A fair few of them had been sliced to bits, victims of Roman’s swords, but they were vastly outnumbered by the ones Logan had taken out in a single blast. Had the situation not been so dire, he might have been jealous of him for stealing his glory.

“You did it!” he said, turning around to face Logan, “Lo, that was amazing!”

“I could not have done it without you,” answered Logan, “But our job is not done. We still have to find Virgil and Patton.”

Roman nodded, picking his swords up and handing the regular one over to Logan. 

“In case we run into any more enemies,” he said, “Don’t pretend like you don’t know how to use it.”

Logan accepted the sword, grabbing a cloth from his bag to clean off the residues left behind by the creatures.

“Let’s go,” he said.

And into the tower they went.


	17. Break my shackles to set me free

“Patton! Patton, wake up!”

Patton groaned, prying his body off the ground. He was a bit disoriented at the darkness, but then he remembered. A shudder went through his body, but he forced himself to remain calm for Virgil’s sake.

“Virgil? Wh- what’s going on, kiddo?” he asked, pushing himself up into a sitting position. Within moments, the other’s hand was there to support him, helping him up, grounding him.

“There was- there was a  _ light _ . I don’t know what it was, but one of  _ them _ was outside the cage and when the light faded it had just- dropped to the ground. I think- I think it’s  _ dead _ ,” said Virgil.

Had he still had them, Patton’s eyes would have widened. He was pretty sure the empty sockets had, and he winced a bit at how that must look to Virgil, but he decided not to worry about it too much.

“It’s-  _ dead? _ ” he asked. “Like,  _ dead _ dead?”

There was a pause.

“Yeah,” came Virgil’s voice, “Sorry, I nodded, I forgot-”

“It’s okay, kiddo,” said Patton, raising his hand toward the sound of Virgil’s voice, trying to find his head. Really, it wasn’t okay at all, but he had to keep it together right now. Virgil had found hope - it was evident in his voice - and he would be damned if he were to tear that away from him. 

Virgil’s hand grabbed his wrist, and led his hand to the side of his face. Patton smiled a bit, moving his hand up to ruffle Virgil’s hair. The other leaned into his touch, but said nothing.

“C’mere, Virge,” he said, opening his arms and hoping he looked inviting. “I can’t see you.”

“No,” mumbled Virgil, quietly enough that Patton could barely hear.

Patton felt Virgil’s hand grab his wrist again, and then he was being pulled toward him. Before he knew it he was in Virgil’s lap, and the other was holding him tightly, his face buried in his shoulder. He felt Virgil start shaking, and he felt his shirt go damp, and he realized Virgil was crying again. He couldn’t blame him.

“I’m sorry,” said Virgil, “I’m sorry, I wish they’d taken mine instead. I’m sorry.”

Patton threw his arms around Virgil, rubbing his back. 

“It’s okay, kiddo,” he said. “It’s not your fault. It’s okay.”

That’s when they heard the voice.

“Patton?! Virgil?! Are you in here somewhere?!”

The voice had undeniably come from another Splinter. Patton and Virgil both stiffened, before Patton cautiously called out.

“Hello?” he called, his voice dry and raspy. “I-it’s Patton. Virgil is here too.”

Virgil didn’t say anything, only holding on to his friend. Footsteps rushed down the corridor, stopping right outside the cell.

“Patton! Virgil! Oh my goodness!” 

There was the sound of…  _ something _ slicing through the bars, and suddenly there was another set of hands on him. He stiffened, not knowing who it was.

“I-it’s okay, Patton, It’s- It’s Logan. Roman is here too,” said Virgil. Patton relaxed a bit.

“L-logan?” he asked, turning his face toward where he guessed the other was. He could  _ feel _ Logan flinch as he saw his face, and turned his head down in shame.

“Yes, Patton, it’s me, I’m here,” said Logan, “As Virgil said, Roman is here too. We’re going to get you out of here, we’re going to get you home.”

“What he said,” came what Patton assumed was Roman’s voice from somewhere to his left. There was another noise, just like when he’d sliced through the bars, and Patton flinched. “I just cut off the chains, don’t worry. We’ll get those collars off you properly later, but we gotta get you to safety now. Can you walk?”

“I think so,” said Patton, “But I’ll need help or I’ll walk into something… What about you, Virgil?”

“I- I don’t know. Not without support, that’s for sure,” said Virgil. 

“That’s alright, we’ll help you,” said Logan. “Patton, I’m going to let go of you and help Virgil up, okay? After that, I will reach out a hand and help lead you. Roman will take care of keeping us all safe.”

Patton nodded.

“Yeah, okay,” he said.

He heard Logan get up, and soon enough Virgil let go of him - presumably to lean on Logan. Patton reached out a hand and Logan grasped it, pulling him up.

“We ready to go?” came Roman’s voice.

Patton nodded, and although he heard no response from the others he assumed they had done the same as Logan started walking.

“Stay close to me, okay? We’ll be out of here soon,” said Logan. Morality responded by squeezing his hand and making sure to walk as close to him as he could.

Logan led him down a flight of stairs, and through a long patch of rough terrain, and then finally, up another flight of stairs - although these ones felt different somehow, safer, more homely. He couldn’t quite put a finger on why.

“Once we’re up the stairs, there will be more people waiting for us,” said Roman, “Patton, do you remember Imaj, Missy, and Pranks? I know Virgil already met them, down there.”

“I- I don’t think-” he began, but then suddenly, memories came flooding back into his brain. He had to stop walking for a moment, but Roman - who had taken over the leading since they got to the stairs and were safe - supported him. “I do. I remember. They- they’re okay?”

“Yeah,” said Roman, “They’re up there, safe and sound. And you will be soon, too.”

Patton nodded, and kept walking.

He knew he was close to the top before he got there, because another voice, this one significantly younger, called out.

“Pat-pat! Anni-ann!” 

Before he knew it, he was on flat ground, and he was being tackle-hugged by a small child. He stumbled, but Roman caught him and kept him from falling over.

“Hey, kiddo,” he croaked, “Yeah. It’s me. Pat-pat is back.”

It was in this moment, that Patton knew. Everything was going to be okay.


	18. Epilogue

Days passed. And then the days turned into weeks, and the weeks turned into months. It took a while, but the Mindscape restored itself, adapting to the new needs of its inhabitants. Virgil’s arm and Patton’s eyes were lost forever, but they learned to live with that. Patton even used the opportunity to get all kinds of crazy-looking prosthetic eyes - he had one pair that looked like his old ones, sure, but he also had pink and green and purple ones. He even had one pair that was completely solid-colored glow-in-the-dark. And, like the dork he is, even though he couldn’t see he still wore glasses.

They all returned to making videos with Thomas - although since they didn’t have any good way to explain how Virgil was missing an arm, in future videos his scenes actually were Thomas acting, just like the viewers had thought all along. He was still present though, making countless snarky comments about how Thomas wasn’t doing it right. They all knew not to take him too seriously.

The other wounds inflicted upon Patton and Virgil healed - it took a long time, but eventually not even a scar was left behind. They never told the others  _ exactly _ what they went through, but they often talked to each other, forming their own little support group. After a while, Pranks and Missy’s memories of their time with the Creatures started returning too, and they joined.

No one ever told Thomas what had really happened. They came up with some excuse about the medicine having done all the damage, and leaving out the whole nightmare land ordeal. They never explained why Missy, Imaj, and Pranks were back either, but after seeing how Patton and Virgil would flinch every time he brought it up he learned to stop asking about it.

Slowly, but surely, they healed. Virgil and Patton never stopped having nightmares, but after a few years Virgil no longer flinched whenever he saw a spoon or a knife, and Patton stopped clinging to the nearest person like his life depended on it whenever he heard a loud noise. The nightmares became less frequent. They learned how to be happy again. They recovered. They healed.

Life would never be exactly the same as before, but that was okay. Everything was okay. They were all alright. 

And from the day that Patton and Virgil returned from hell, until the end of Thomas’s life and subsequently the entire Mindscape, not a single Splinter was ever forgotten again.

The end.


End file.
